We want to enjoy our
backyards
Long Island Advance July
19, 2007
Summer is here and people are able to once again enjoy
the outdoors—except for those who live near the
re-opened Suffolk County Trap & Skeet Gun Range in
Yaphank. There, people will be forced to take refuge in
their homes and hopefully hear less gun noise, rather
than being able to enjoy a beautiful day outside because
of the range’s overbearing presence.
The range exists in the Core Pine Barrens
Preservation Area, which is managed by the Central Pine
Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission. It is
baffling that this commission, comprised of Suffolk
County Executive Steve Levy, Brookhaven Town Supervisor
Brian X. Foley, Riverhead Supervisor Phil Cardinale,
Southampton Supervisor Patrick Heaney, and DEC Director
Peter Scully has not exercised its right to take
jurisdiction of the very land it is chartered to
protect.
Brookhaven Town Environmental Protection head John
Turner claimed that Brian Foley wanted to make a motion
for the commission to take jurisdiction of the land on
which the range exists, but that there was no support
from the two East End supervisors; John Cardinale of
Riverhead and Patrick Heaney of Southampton. But when
phone calls were placed to Cardinale and Heaney, it was
Cardinale who took the time to speak at length with
residents expressing his understanding of the situation
and that he was not happy about the inaction of the
commission, and that he adamantly expressed his support
for having the commission act accordingly. We are
assuming that Peter Scully is interested in having the
commission take jurisdiction of the range given the
swift actions taken by him to close the range in 2001
after exercising his right as then acting Suffolk County
Parks Commissioner to enforce the terms of that vendor’s
license agreement, which was so flagrantly violated.
Surely no commissioner can condone the marginalization
of two entire neighborhoods, a county park, and an
ecosystem by an entity which exists in violation of a
number of laws, not the least of which are the very same
laws the Pine Barrens Commission is sworn to uphold. The
Pine Barrens Commission has the power of the law on its
side and myriad reasons for taking action. So what’s the
problem? We are not seeking to ban sport shooting, or
compromise anyone’s Second Amendment rights. All we want
is to have the peace we are as entitled to as any other
homeowner would be. We want to be able to use our
backyards as others do without listening to a
battlefield soundtrack all day.
Someone else besides John Cardinale needs to stand up
and assert themselves at the commission and put an end
to this nightmare once and for all. We simply wish to
live life peacefully just as you do.
Doug
and Joanne Steigerwald
Yaphank
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